More warplanes photographed at Shannon

Tue, 11/09/2018 - 01:21 by shannonwatch

Everything looked normal at Shannon Airport as the monthly Shannonwatch peace vigil took place outside the airport. We would have preferred to highlight the military use of the airport at the terminal building, but as usual a cordon of Gardai standing behind crowd control barriers would not let us enter the airport.

However everything was not normal for a civilian airport. During the one hour peace vigil two US military contracted planes landed. Both were operated by Omni Air International.

The first, with registration N207AX arrived at Shannon from Bardufoss Airport in north Norway, having previous been in Gdansk Poland and in Fort Worth Texas. Baradufoss nilitary air station is co-located on the same site as the commercial Bardufoss Airport. It has been used as a base for US/NATO training exercises; US Marines have in the past (and may still be) based in Norway. Although its about 1,000 kilometers from the border with Russia, there is even a plan to bolster the readiness of pre-positioned tanks and weaponry stored throughout the year in underground caves.

The second US military contracted plane, N477AX arrived at Shannon from Kuwait, having previously been at Al Udeid Airbase in Doha Qatar and also at Gdansk in Poland. After leaving Shannon it went on to Hurlburt in Florida.

The previous evening (Saturday), there was another US military aircraft, a US Navy C40 Clipper registration number 16-5831, at Shannon.